More than 20 million viewers saw England crash out of Euro 2000 in last
night's nail-biting match against Romania.
BBC1 coverage of the crunch clash raked in an average audience of 17.5
million, peaking at 19.3 million as Phil Neville gave away the tragic
last-minute penalty which spelled doom for the national side.
The ratings - equivalent to 71% of the overall TV-watching audience at that
time - do not take account of the many who are likely to have seen the game in
pubs and clubs.
While an average of 18 million viewers tuned in to watch England's historic
1-0 win over Germany on Saturday, they were spread over two channels, BBC1 and
ITV.
Tuesday night's figures are all the more remarkable in the light of the fact
that, 20 minutes into the Six O'Clock News, the BBC was forced off air following
a major power cut in West London.
Technicians and news teams finally managed to restore normal service at 7pm -
just in time for the football build-up in Charleroi.
A BBC spokeswoman said today: "Last night's was the highest viewing figure
for the tournament so far by a long way, so we are delighted."
The match, which turned out to be England's last, was scheduled against ITV
stalwart shows Emmerdale and Better Homes, presented by television maths wizard
Carol Vorderman.

last post in wrong place, sorry!

You mean you bothered to post that twice?

Talkback is also a very big agency for actors, comics, stand ups and so on. Possibly the 800 employees include these people, but that's not for sure, it's just my guess. Almost everyone I know seems to have Talkback as an agent.

Yes, I though that, but I don't think someone like, say, Sally Phillips would be counted as an employee, ditto for all the other performers. So that leaves loads of hangers-on.

Did you know that Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones owned Talkback? Even though Pearson have bought it, they still run it.